Friendship

by Shena Mackay

A collection of writing that reflects the subject of friendship in all it's guises. What brings more joy and more consolation than friendship? It is the glue that binds fragmented societies, and the lubricant that keeps their rusty machinery chugging along. Our friends define us, and the very word ' Friend ' derives from the Old English word for ' love ' In this eclectic selection, Shena Mackay concentrates on the modern. Her choice ranges from the 1st world war, through the familiar and less well known, to preivously unpublished stories very much of our time. Friends are celebrated with humour and wit, but darker aspects, loss, betrayal and regret, are also touched on in this portrayal of the innumerable permutations of friendship.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh in 1944 and currently lives in London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and also Honorary Visiting Professor to the MA in Writing at Middlesex University.

Her novels include the black comedy Redhill Rococo (1986), winner of the Fawcett Society Book Prize; Dunedin (1992), which won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award; and the acclaimed The Orchard on Fire (1995) which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her novel Heligoland (2003) was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread Novel Award.